Question: Gabriela is 3 times as old as Ishaan and is also 8 years older than Ishaan. How old is Ishaan?
Explanation: We can use the given information to write down two equations that describe the ages of Gabriela and Ishaan. Let Gabriela's current age be $g$ and Ishaan's current age be $i$ $g = 3i$ $g = i + 8$ Now we have two independent equations, and we can solve for our two unknowns. Since we are looking for $i$ , and both of our equations have $g$ alone on one side, this is a convenient time to use elimination. Subtracting the second equation from the first equation, we get: $0 =$ $3i$ $-$ $ (i + 8)$ which combines the information about $i$ from both of our original equations. Solving for $i$ , we get: $2 i = 8$ $i = 4$.